Element Materials Technology, Huntington Beach, Calif., reports that it plans to substantially increase its aerospace testing capacity by expanding laboratory facilities by 70% and adding a third shift. The new facility will enable the laboratory to further grow its stress rupture and creep testing departments, and will house over 300 test frames, more than double its current number. The new building is to have its own dedicated machine shop to improve efficiency.

With demand from the Aerospace Primes and their supply chain partners continuing to increase, Element Huntington Beach has leased a 20,000 sq ft property adjacent to its existing 30,000 sq ft site. It has also launched a third shift on weekdays and now offers services 24 hours a day, five days a week, with an additional shift on both Saturday and Sunday.

According to Colin Speedie, VP U.S. Operations, “The aerospace market is extremely buoyant at the moment, and we are anticipating it will strengthen yet further in 2014. In response to this, we have moved quickly to offer a 24-hour laboratory service. We are already seeking to double the size of the third shift in 2014.”

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Spirit AeroSystems Inc., Wichita,  Kan., and Norsk Titanium Components AS, Norway, have reached a significant milestone in a multi-year collaboration for direct metal deposition technology. They developed an additive manufacturing technology that enables titanium components to be built up close to the final shape using titanium feedstock instead of a large titanium block. The process reduces waste, uses less energy, and is significantly faster.

An international group of researchers, headed by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has shown that graphene has a heat dissipating effect on silicon-based electronics. Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, is a very good heat conductor, ten times better than copper. Graphene has been shown to reduce temperatures in devices such as processors by up to 13 Celsius degrees, which not only improves energy efficiency, but also extends the working life of devices.

The Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,  has launched its Institute for Materials (IMat), the newest of Georgia Tech’s nine Interdisciplinary Research Institutes. It results from an investment of nearly $10 million that Georgia Tech has committed through 2018 to establish an interdisciplinary materials innovation ecosystem. IMat will play a leadership role in accelerating materials discovery, development, and application.

U.S. Chrome, Stratford, Conn., announces that it will scale up commercial production of its family of TriCom electroplating technologies. TriCom-H is based on a composite microstructure of a cobalt-phosphorus alloy matrix with uniformly dispersed fine silicon carbide particles. Offering extremely high hardness and high wear resistance, it represents a drop-in replacement for hard chrome, without environmental drawbacks.

The eBeam Initiative, a forum dedicated to the education and promotion of new semiconductor manufacturing approaches based on electron beam (eBeam) technologies, announces the completion of the second annual eBeam Initiative survey. The 28 member companies from across the photomask global supply chain participated in the survey.

Aichelin Group., Modling, Austria, announces that a new order for a 1500-kg electrically heated quench furnace installation has been received from Renault Nissan Automotive Ltd., for its automotive assembly plant in Chennai, India.  The order reportedly consists of four sealed quench furnaces and accessories, including a tempering and preheating furnace, a washer, and other related equipment, to be supplied in phases until April 2015.

The University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, announces that the seven-metric-ton, 4.5-meter-tall scanning transmission electron holography microscope (STEHM)  has now been fully assembled and tested, and has a lineup of scientists and businesses eager to use it. A team from Hitachi, which constructed the ultrahigh-resolution (35 picometers), ultra-stable instrument, spent one year painstakingly assembling the STEHM in a carefully controlled lab in the basement of the Bob Wright Centre.

Kobe Steel Ltd., Japan, reports that it has recently developed a new die-forging method that increases the fatigue strength of crankshaft material by 20% compared with conventional forging. As a result, long-stroke crank throws of higher reliability and lighter weight can now be commercially mass produced for diesel engines in ships.   In engine development, ships are using larger propellers that rotate at slower speeds, driving the need for low-rpm propellers with high output.